DistortedCode ―生者の残り香―

あらすじ

It was the end of June, just before the summer break. Among the students excitedly awaiting the longest school holiday in the year, there is a young girl seemingly the exact opposite, her cold eyes filled with resignation.

That girl has a secret.

Two years ago, an case of assault took place at a certain household. It was a forgettable incident, only briefly written about in a small corner of the newspaper where both the victim and assailant's name was hidden in the article. The victim of that incident was none other than her. The assailant was her elder twin brother, who is currently housed in a boys' home. He kept his silence, and it is currently unknown why he committed such an act.

But the girl has a premonition that the next time they meet, she will certainly be killed.

Her brother will be released from the boys' home in July. If she was going to be killed, she might as well die before that happens. Despite having such foolish thoughts, she never put them into action. But time is almost running out.

As she was thinking that, a lone boy calls out to her. He's from the class next door, and he reached out to her because he felt an ominous presence from her that he couldn't ignore. However, not wanting anyone to meddle in her affairs, the girl coldly brushed him off and left.

But...the following day, the boy went to her classroom and stubbornly began to follow her around. If you're troubled, you should talk about it with someone, anyone, it doesn't have to be him. The girl finally gave in to the boy's persistence and confessed everything, thinking that he'll be scared and leave her alone.

But it had the opposite effect. "Since you've told me your troubles, I'll take responsibility by finding a way to resolve them together with you." Saying that, the boy continued to follow her around even more.

As the girl slowly began to open up in his presence, the day of her brother's release finally came. She received a call from her father who was to take him home by car.

Her brother had suddenly disappeared on the way home, he said.